In a feverish middle-of-the-night revelation I channeled this walk-through installation idea onto paper before creating these drawings using the first 3D software I could find (SketchUp). At the time these outpourings were all about expressing how family is both a matrix and maze of self-understanding.
The title is a retro-meme, proposed in each opening episode of The Prisoner, a late 60’s Spy-Fi television show. When urgently demanding to know Who is number one? the only dry response offered to our captive secret agent is: You are Number 6. … Then, our hero’s hostile rebuttal: I am not a number, I’m a free man!
The circular inscription reads:
I am not a victim. I am just a fragile being that I’ve been ignoring all my life.
Text excerpt from the original Proposal (pitched to Darling Foundry in 2006) : “Am I loved or am I alone? Am I the centre of the universe or just a lost particle? Am I a fearful consumer zombie that follows Economy as the fundamental principal around which life is organized, or am I a sensitive being who, forced to accept mortality, struggles to acknowledge his own emotions and to remain conscious of some sort of authentic and feeling self ? “
Having bumped up against what feels like the limits of consumerism and religious ideology, Who Is Number One? proposes a physical and metaphoric space to reflect upon questions about where a wounded sense of self (carried into adulthood) places us.
In retrospect, I see how my attraction to paradox, particularly to the idea of bound freedom has consistently preoccupied my worldview.
This project has yet to be realized. If it speaks to you, perhaps you would like to collaborate on bringing it to life?
Looking to commission such a piece? Please get in touch!